The present invention relates to intravascular catheters, and more specifically the present invention relates to intravascular catheters for accessing difficult to reach regions of the human body such as the vasculature and methods for manufacture thereof.
Interventional procedures that rely on catheterization of a patient's vasculature have proven to be effective for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and conditions. Interventional procedures for the coronary arteries, such as angiography and angioplasty, are by now routinely performed as needed. Procedures such as these are also useful in the peripheral vasculature. More recently, consideration has been directed to the further development of interventional procedures for other hard to reach vascular sites, such as the brain and liver. For example, it would facilitate diagnosis of certain conditions if radiopaque dye injections could be made to vascular sites deep within the brain. Also, there are procedures to repair an aneurysm in a vessel branch of the brain that involve infusing embolic material to seal off the vessel and/or lesion. Also, there are catheterization procedures for the treatment of arterial-venous malformations (AVM's) that include the infusion of embolic materials via a catheter. Other therapeutic infusions involve the use of coils, glue, collagens, ethanol, chemotherapy agents and thrombolytic agents, to name a few.
Accessing distal vascular sites such as deep within the brain via the arterial system poses unique difficulties. The arteries that lead to the brain, i.e. the carotid and vertebral arterial branches, are characterized by numerous and tortuous branchings. Subselective catheterization of higher order carotid arteries, (e.g. third, fourth, fifth or even higher), can be very difficult even for a highly skilled interventionalist. One of the factors that has made subselective catheterization of the carotid or vertebral arteries so difficult is the absence of a catheter suitable for subselective catheterization of higher order arterial branches.
A catheter suitable for access to remote vascular sites along tortuous vascular passages should possess certain features. For example, the catheter should track well over a guide wire. Another feature that is desirable in a vascular access catheter is pushability. Another desirable feature is a relatively large lumen size in order to infuse drugs, dye, agents, or other materials through the lumen even with a guide wire at least partially in place.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a catheter suitable for vascular access of high order vascular branches.